UCHealth Under Fire After Inspectors Discover Contaminated Surgical Equipment
By: Erin Keller | The Independent
The hospital had to take drastic steps after the incident
State inspectors have revealed that UCHealth’s University of Colorado Hospital’s week-long shutdown of nonemergency surgeries came after they found dozens of contaminated surgical instruments caked with dried blood and tissue around the facility.
In July, inspectors uncovered a massive backlog of uncleaned tools, prompting the hospital to halt all nonemergency surgeries from July 16 to July 25 while safety violations were addressed.
The inspection, triggered by a formal complaint, found 17 stainless steel carts in the hospital’s sterile processing department (SPD) bearing between 11 and 30 trays of dirty surgical instruments each.
Additional carts we...


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